Expansion of mung bean farming supports rural women

About fifteen thousand rural women, including students, are harvesting mung beans in six upazilas in Jhenidah this season. The area of mung bean farming has increased in the district this year, keeping trend with previous years. Farmers said that they are able to earn good profits from mung bean production.

Lilima Aktar, 30, a house wife of Roghunathpur village under Kaliganj upazila said that she was helpless. Now she collects 10 to 25 kilograms of beans from the fields of the farmers and earns Taka 130 to 150 per day. The farmers pay taka twelve for each kilogram of collected beans, she said. Hasina Khatun, Salma Khatun and some other women of the area who are currently engaged in the same work shared the same story.

School students Bithika Rani and Salma Pervin said they work in the mung bean plot after their studies and earn taka 80 to 100 a day.  The money helps them to manage the education expenses as well as lend a helping hand to their poor families.

Farmer Badsha Mia of Bishoykhali village in Jhenidah sadar upazila said, he had cultivated Barimug-6 variety of mung beans on his one and a half bigha land this season. He is expecting 14 maunds of pulses from the plot, which can bring a return of about Taka 30 thousand.

The area of coverage of mung beans was 1,180 hectares in Jhenidah sadar, 2,450 hectares in Kaliganj, 1,600 hectares in Kotchandpur, 1,460 hectares in Moheshpur, 55 hectares in Sailkupa and 220 hectares of land in Harinakundu upazila this season. Sources said, the farmers in the district had produced 8,971 tons of mung beans in 2014-15, which is projected to grow to 9,500 tons in 2015-16 fiscal year.

Deputy Director of the DAE in Jhenidah Shah Md. Akramul Haq said, “The mung bean farming area has been increasing in the district as farmers are earning better returns from it. The farmers in the district have brought 7,025 hectares of land under the mung bean farming in the season against a target of 7,597 hectares. Furthermore, mung bean expansion has helped rural women earn a seasonal living.